YANGON: Myanmar’s civilian President Htin Kyaw, a close ally of government leader Aung San Suu Kyi, has authorised the police to proceed with a case against two detained Reuters reporters accused of violating the country’s colonial-era Official Secrets Act, a senior government spokesman said.
Journalists Wa Lone, 31, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 27, were arrested last Tuesday evening after they were invited to dine with police officers on the outskirts of Myanmar’s largest city, Yangon.
“The Ministry of Home Affairs has already submitted the case to the Office of the President,” Zaw Htay, spokesman for Aung San Suu Kyi, said by phone late on Sunday. He added that the president’s office had given approval for the case to go ahead.
Zaw Htay could not be reached on Monday to clarify whether Htin Kyaw or Suu Kyi had been personally involved in the decision, or if other officials had signed off on the president’s behalf.
Suu Kyi, head of the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD), is barred from the presidency under a constitution written by the military. But she effectively runs the country in the role of “state counsellor”.
Approval from the president’s office is needed before court proceedings can begin in a case brought under the Official Secrets Act. Section 13 of the Act states: “No Court shall take cognizance of any offence under this Act unless upon complaint made by order of, or under authority from, the President of the Union.”
A number of governments, including the United States, Canada and Britain, and United Nations’ Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, as well as Reuters Editor-in-Chief Stephen J Adler and a host of journalists’ and human rights’ groups have criticised the arrests as an attack on press freedom and called on Myanmar to release the two men.
Zaw Htay said the journalists’ legal rights were being respected. “Your reporters are protected by the rule of the law,” he said. “All I can say is the government can guarantee the rule of law.”
But two senior figures in the NLD on Monday joined the criticism of how the two men are being treated.
Nyan Win, a member of the NLD’s central executive committee and one of Suu Kyi’s defence lawyers during her years of house arrest under junta rule, said it was “unfair” that the families of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were not allowed to contact them or be told where they are being held. — Reuters
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